MICHAEL VAN GERWEN has been priced as the standout favourite to go and retain his World Series tour TV title as he makes his way to Glasgow.

With ITV4 showing the coverage live from 12:45 on Saturday, 24 players will wage battle, as the top 8 seeds enter the tourney on Saturday evening with the non seeded players facing off in the afternoon session.

With four sessions over the weekend the draw and format are thus:

Saturday November 5

Afternoon Session (12.45pm-5pm)

First Round

Max Hopp v Cristo Reyes

Benito van de Pas v Michael Smith

Jelle Klaasen v Kim Huybrechts

Brendan Dolan v Simon Whitlock

Mensur Suljovic v Robert Thornton

Joe Murnan v Joe Cullen

Gerwyn Price v Steve Beaton

Daryl Gurney v Josh Payne

Evening Session (7pm-11pm)

Second Round

Adrian Lewis (5) v Hopp/Reyes

James Wade (6) v van de Pas/Smith

Dave Chisnall (4) v Klaasen/Huybrechts

Raymond van Barneveld (8) v Dolan/Whitlock

Phil Taylor (3) v Suljovic/Thornton

Gary Anderson (2) v Murnan/Cullen

Michael van Gerwen (1) v Price/Beaton

Peter Wright (7) v Gurney/Payne

The format for the first two rounds will be best of eleven, with the quarter finals best of nineteen, as well as the semi-finals with the final a race to eleven.

At the time of writing MVG is 5/6 with William Hill, Betway and Betfair sportsbook to retain his title. The overall percentage book was at around 111% for the outrights. Interestingly Gary Anderson and Phil Taylor are a point higher in their odds at 7/1 whereas earlier events in the year saw them around 11/2 or 6/1.

MVG’s half of the group has four seeds that either all crashed out in round one at the European Championships or did not appear including Adrian Lewis and Raymond van Barneveld.

Michael van Gerwen will certainly have the edge with onstage action and could even face Whitlock again this weekend but will be on the longer format on Sunday if they both meet.

Michaels expert knowledge of his opponents and knowing how to beat them including his incredible scoring power suggests how can you justify backing against Mighty Mike?

Looking at round one there will be some upsets in there somewhere, but with the banana skin format I will be minimal on bets to establish how the players are settling in.